What does delete mean?
"Delete" is a common English verb meaning to remove or erase something — most often text, files, or other recorded information. It can describe physically striking out words on paper, as editors do with manuscripts, but today it is most frequently applied to digital content: users delete emails, photographs, documents, and entire accounts with a click or a keystroke. The word carries no strong emotional charge on its own, though context can make deletion feel decisive or even destructive, since deleted material may be impossible to recover. Derived from Latin "delēre," meaning to wipe out or destroy, "delete" entered English in the seventeenth century and has since become indispensable vocabulary of the computer age. Its relatives include "deletion," the noun for the act or result of deleting, and "deleterious," meaning harmful — both tracing back to the same Latin root of wiping away.
verbTo remove or erase something, especially written or recorded material such as text, data, or files.
- To remove written or printed text, especially by crossing it out.
- To erase digital data, files, or records from a computer system.
"She deleted the paragraph because it weakened her argument."
"Please delete the last two lines of the report before submitting it."
"He accidentally deleted all his photos when he reset his phone."
The Delete key on your keyboard is named after a word that originally meant to destroy — its Latin ancestor, delēre, meant to wipe out completely.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of delete
Delete comes from Latin "delēre," meaning to wipe away, blot out, or destroy, formed from the prefix "de-" plus a root connected to "linere," to smear or wipe. The word entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially in the sense of erasing written text. Its Latin past participle "dēlētus" also gives us "deleterious" (harmful) and underlies "indeleble" (indelible), reflecting the same idea of what can or cannot be wiped away. The computing sense became dominant in the late twentieth century.
Related word forms
How delete is actually used
In everyday modern usage, "delete" most often refers to removing digital data, though it retains its older sense of striking out written text. It is standard and neutral across registers, used freely in both formal and informal contexts.
Easily confused with delete
"Dele" is a proofreader's mark and instruction meaning to delete text, whereas "delete" is the general verb for removing content.
"Demote" means to lower someone in rank or status, while "delete" means to remove something entirely.